A Course In Miracles Lesson 39

A Course In Miracles Lesson 39 states:

My holiness is my salvation

Or

My connection with the Creative Field ends suffering.

Connecting with a spiritual dimension is a mental process that begins with a decision.  A decision is a movement of conviction.  The word “spiritual” infers the quality of non-physical, meaning you can not touch, taste, smell, hear, or see that which is of a spiritual nature.  You know it without the five senses.  This means that to speak of the spiritual dimension at all must always be a mental (non-physical) event.  This idea is the beginning of the realization that the nature of lasting reality is of a non-physical, thought based nature.

From previous lessons (35) we defined holiness as the concept of forever wholeness.  Whole means complete and fulfilled.  These are the qualities of The Creative Field which exists beyond time and space in a forever way.  The Creative Field is always there in every possible circumstance.  We can also call this complete, whole, well, calm, peaceful, dimension the Tao, or God, or the Great Mystery, or any combination of words that feels close enough to describe the indescribable.  If the word “holiness” causes your mind to pause and check out due to past negative experiences with religious environments, find a word that you like to describe the qualities of profound wellness and substitute it in today’s lesson.  The words that have been used for so long in unhealthy religious institutions can be updated to any language that speaks of the true descriptions of reality.  In today’s lesson, we have a new vocabulary word that gave me immediate trouble.  

The word “salvation” is no longer used in any other context except religious ones.  It comes from the word “save” and implies a complex concept that a human needs to be saved from… something.  That something is often described in Western religions as “sin.”  These two words are deeply entrenched in the rather negative thought forms of archaic religious teachings which have convinced people for centuries that their existence is “bad” or “sinful” and that they need to be “saved” from this apparently impossible state of wrongness that they had no choice but to be born into.  The medieval Western world view that has been tangled up with the word salvation is so misguided it is safe to call those religious teachings insane.  Sorting out the logic of something that is insane would not be of any benefit to us.  The logic of false beliefs just goes around and around themselves and can never lead to clarity or wellness.  

We will not investigate faulty logic.  We will, instead, redefine words that have been used in a faulty way and clarify messages that help us gain a sense of peace and calm.  The purpose of religion over the centuries was intent on spreading fear.  The purpose of spirituality is intent on dissolving fear and reestablishing calm.

Salvation means to save from harm or deliverance from harm.  It implies that help has been received and that improvement has been made.  So, salvation means, receiving help and ending pain.

A Course In Miracles Lesson 39 asks, “If guilt is hell, what is its opposite?”  If guilt is hell, what is the opposite of guilt?  The opposite would be not hell.  It would be… heaven… which is yet another loaded religious word associated with large swaths of white clouds and winged angels with trumpets.  So if we extract the word heaven from the historical use, and associate it instead with a secular definition of a pain-free, peaceful environment we can ask ourselves if we think such an environment is possible.  Do you think it is possible to live in an environment that does not have suffering?  

This question is not asking if you think it is possible to live in an environment without pain.  Suffering is not the same as pain.  Pain hurts and comes to an end.  Suffering hurts and goes on and on.  Suffering is hell.  Suffering is a mental affliction founded on the belief that it is not possible to end pain.

A Course In Miracles not only disagrees with this belief that ongoing pain is reality and that there is no way to end pain, it is teaching through a methodical daily process how to change our way of thinking to end suffering and handle pain with fortitude.  There is no such thing as hell.  There is no eternal suffering.  Connecting to the Source of all creation and knowing myself as part of that creative source brings my suffering to an end.  It “saves” me from an unnecessary ongoing agony of affliction and separation.

I am not separated, I am not alone.  I am connected in with what is and I always will be.

In previous lessons, the course explained that when we connect ourselves to the Field of Reality which is creative, peaceful, and joyful we bring those qualities to the world.  Today’s lesson clarifies that the way that happens is by realizing those qualities exist within our own minds.  Locating peace and calm within is the only place we can ever find peace and calm.  Our willingness to settle is how we arrive at it.  The external world will reflect what we achieve within.

Our connection to the Source of Creation is the answer to every question that was ever asked, is being asked, or will ever be asked.  Any pain you experience can end when you locate the qualities of The Field within.  If someone makes you angry today, it is not being asked of you that you pretend you are not angry with them so that you can hold onto “peaceful” qualities you do not really feel.  If someone pushes a button and activates anger or resentment or frustration, that is the open doorway into investigating your unique thought patterns about the situation which are misguided.  

When this happens today, say to the situation, “My unloving thoughts about ______ are keeping me in hell.  My connection to the Creative Field will end this pain.”

Try to sit for 5 minutes four times today.  Repeat the lesson: My connection to the Creative Field ends suffering.  Then close your eyes and search for thoughts that bring qualities of pain, frustration, anger, sadness, or bitterness.  Let your mind roam through the contents of your head.  As each one appears in its given form as anxiety, worry, insecurity, etc… recognize them as not having the qualities of Creation and say to each one, “This thought about _____ is keeping me in hell.” (Or  use the word “in pain” if you do not like the word “hell”.)

And throughout the day, bring this phrase to any situation that causes any range of discomfort for you.  Apply the idea to painful thoughts as often as you remember it.

Be sure to connect with the idea that if you take a moment to remember the qualities of the Creative Field as forever peaceful, creative, joyful, whole, and well, and to remember that connecting to this field is what will end the pain you experience in any given situation.  

There is a dimension where ALL is well.  That dimension is located within your own mind, deeply buried under a tangle of misguided beliefs and memories.  Locating this sun behind the clouds in your mind will help those clouds disperse and connect you with the eternal clarity and calm that exists always.  It is there.  You can find it.